Animal Assisted Therapy in a Rural Setting
Animal-assisted therapy uses the human-animal bond in goal-oriented interventions. People who enjoy being with animals will often easily form a relationship with an animal, developing empathy and rapport with the animal.
Animals are sensitive to human behaviour and respond to subtle changes in a person’s behaviour or mood providing immediate and obvious feedback to the person to help look at and modify their own behaviour to achieve both their goals with the animal (eg to pat them), and their own goals (eg being able to stand still/be calm).
Utilising AAT in a multispecies farm setting extends the opportunities to use AAT to meet therapy goals.
This talk will look at ways I work with animals, people and nature together to facilitate an individual's goals.
Madeleine Flynn
she/her
Mental Health Occupational Therapist
Madeleine is a specialist Mental Health Occupational Therapist who works in private practice on her own property on the Sunshine Coast, doing therapy incorporating farm animals and the natural environment.
She has previously worked in child/youth/family mental health in both community and hospital settings as a play therapist, conducting life skills training, experiential and psychotherapy groups and family work.
She has been managing her own (mostly rescue) farm menagerie, and rewilding their property since 1999 as well as working in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, becoming a certified dog behaviourist/trainer and completing a Masters in Environmental Science specializing in wildlife ecology and animal behaviour.